Smoke, Mirrors, and the Shrinking Workforce The May jobs report gave the illusion of strength: 139,000 new payroll jobs and an unchanged unemployment rate at 4.2%. But don’t be fooled—the so-called “good news” masks an underlying rot. In truth, May saw 625,000 Americans vanish from the labor force. That’s not a typo. It’s the largest exodus in over three years. These aren’t vacationers—they’re people who’ve either given up looking for work or been shoved out by policy-induced stagnation. The employment-population ratio—arguably the real unemployment gauge—fell to 59.7%. That’s recessionary territory. Where the Jobs Are—and Aren’t Take a guess where most new jobs were created. Tech? Manufacturing? Construction? Nope. Healthcare—that perennial safe haven for bureaucratic expansion and government-adjacent payrolls—added 62,000 jobs,…
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